> really? is it that the can't scrape up enough unix-able people > to keep their clusters busy? (I would want to know why - for instance, > do they build clusters that are too small to be interesting, or somehow > hard to use? note that it doesn't take much *nix literacy at all to > get along great - mainly it's an issue of whether the user is offended > by anything non-mouse-driven.)
The idea behind this strategy is that if you make your HPC centre accessible to a large and diverse user community you will be less susceptible to (minor) problems in your financial support stream since you broaden up your options. > there have been many systems which aim to reduce real apps to basic > <button>compute!</button> interface. I've never quite understood why > they're so seductive, since that level of automation is mainly justified > if you really do wind up pressing the button very frequently. There are a number of scientific applications with rather well developed GUIs which are really useful and portable. The next obvious thing to do is to integrate somehow the GUI with a job manager. I'm not talking here about interactive steering where such a link is vital. I'm talking about an interface where you compose your job, submit it and view the result, and I'm not sure whether a web interface is ideal for this. Some have done this already, others are still thinking but it would be still worth the effort to come up with a common API for such programs to use. > PBS, Cluster Resources, and LSF all have some type of web portal where you > can do some of these things. Of course they are commercial and sometimes > not always the most flexible. Do they expose some sort of API as well? _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
